The Nyeri County Public Service board has promoted 939 employees of the County government.
According to the Board Chairman, Paul Kimondo, the number represents a quarter of the entire County workforce.
The move clears part of a huge backlog of County government workers who have been due for promotion since November 2023. Kimondo noted that the exercise also addresses stagnation for some of the County staff who were last promoted in the year 2009.
“I am happy to say that this exercise has addressed historical injustices and stagnation of some of our officers, some of whom were last promoted in 2009. These promotions have also addressed succession management issues because certain officers will now be in a position to fit in some new roles of a higher position,” said Kimondo during a ceremony held at the Wambungu Farm, where the staff were issued with their promotion letters.
Additionally, Kimondo noted that the County will be spending Sh172 million in the 2023/2024 financial year to promote and reward staff.
He said that the promotions had affected officers in all 15 County Departments with the health services getting the lion’s share, where 699 officers were promoted.
According to the breakdown from the Health Department, some of the biggest winners were 254 nurses, 80 clinical officers, 72 Public Health Officers, 63 Medical Laboratory Officers and 61 Medical Officers.
Other County Departments that received a significant share of the job promotions from the board were Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries (77), Education and Training 40 where 34 are Technical and Vocational Education and Training Tutors, and 30 Finance and Accounting Officers.
The enhanced pay perks for the 939 will be backdated to December 1, 2023, and the affected staff are expected to start receiving the new pay at the end of this month.
Speaking, during the ceremony, Kimondo urged the newly promoted staff to double their efforts and improve service delivery.
“Since this has happened, we as the County employees of Nyeri need to reciprocate the gesture by working harder and smarter to improve service delivery to the citizenry of Nyeri,” he said.
Also present at the event were Nyeri Governor, Mutahi Kahiga and his Deputy, Warui Kinaniri. Nyeri Senator, Wahome Wamatinga also graced the occasion.
On his part, the County boss revealed plans to set aside Sh35 million in the 2024/2025 Financial Year to cater for additional promotions.
He at the same time challenged the staff to use the opportunity to advance their skills through a series of training opportunities that the County government had lined up for them. Additionally, Kahiga asked the newly promoted officers to improve service delivery to the residents.
“We have agreed that starting this coming financial year we are going to provide some money in the budget for promotions so that we don’t have people with pending promotions. It is my hope that these promotions will be reflected in the general employee performance of the County staff. It is expected that the employees will be motivated to increase their productivity and deliver better services to the citizenry,” said Kahiga.
By Wangari Mwangi
